1. Field
The present disclosure relates to retail fitting room systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and an apparatus that enable a user to visually and simultaneously compare the effects of multiple pieces of clothing and other wearable items in front of a mirror by robustly matching body and head poses from two image sequences to permit comparison shopping.
2. Related Art
Shopping for clothes, jewelry, or other wearable items is a common activity which can be carried out either online or in physical stores. A common practice in a physical store is to search the inventory for items of interest, select a few for comparison and try them on to decide which, if any, to purchase. The shopper evaluates the wearable items according to how well they fit physically, and also how well they fit the image of herself that she wants others to perceive. That is, the shopper not only checks whether a garment fits her body, but also whether it fits her style.
For clothing in particular, a shopper typically would like to compare multiple pieces of clothing in a fitting room. Modern sensing technologies can augment this experience. Some dressing rooms identify the garment as the shopper takes it in (e.g., by RFID readers), providing additional information about the garment's price and alternate colors and sizes—the kind of information shoppers can find when browsing products online. Some other technologies in fitting rooms include a video camera that records the shopper's movements and plays back the video to the shopper.
Techniques have been developed for showing the user in prior fittings (e.g., show a picture with a first article of clothing or jewelry while the user is wearing a second). Further, techniques for matching two recorded video sequences have been developed. See, e.g., Sand and Teller, “Video Matching” ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 222, 3, pp. 592-599 (2004).